What Is the Purpose of the 8 Limbs of Yoga

When embarking on the path of yoga, we make vows of intention that we will abstain from destructive behaviors. We abstain from that which creates harm in a kind of do-unto-others spirit, as a way of not hurting others but also because we understand that when we hurt others we create karma.

The root a- in Sanskrit means non (as it often does in English). So some of the words indicate a sense of non-doing, or refraining from.

Ahimsa means non-violence, or harmlessness, in essence, to refrain from hurting others. Satya means to maintain honesty and truthfulness. Asteya translates to non-stealing or respect of other’s possessions and sovereignty. Brahmacharya refers to the right use of our personal energy, and aparigraha means generosity, or non-greed.

Yoga practiced without ethics and integrity will bring little benefit. Therefore it is encouraged to make personalized vows and commitments that we follow the golden rule in our lives, treating others with the kindness and regard with which we ourselves want to be treated.

Niyama, the second limb of the liberation and union path, refers to positive actions and practices we take:

Saucha (cleanliness), santosha (maintaining a satisfied, happy state of mind, also called contentment), tapas (discipline, or transmuting of our desires through non-indulgence in negative habits and impulses), svadhyaya (self-reflection and study of spiritual ideas and written texts), and isvararpanidaha (surrender to a positive higher power we recognize to be better than our own ego mind and its willful desires).

Niyamas build our character, turning us into the people we really mean to be in our hearts and highest wishes.

The physical postures of yoga are called asanas, (as in bal-asana, or child’s pose). In the 8 fold path of yoga, the third limb, called Asana, refers to one important pose, the pose you take for the practice of meditation, which is a seated pose.

There are different kinds of poses for meditating, such as lotus pose or hero’s pose, but the most important feature of this pose is that it is a posture the meditator can comfortably sustain. Therefore it’s not better or worse to sit in lotus pose or hero pose, rather the importance is what works for each meditator.

A good seated pose will feel that you are able to stay seated like that without constantly being mentally pulled into sensations of pain or restlessness induced by the discomfort of the position. The position should be supportive, not a hindrance.

Prana refers to vital life force energy or our source of aliveness. It means the subtle essence that flows through all living forms.

Prana is so intimately connected with breath, that these are often interchanged to mean the same thing. As we know, all of the human form is affected by the flow of breath and requires unobstructed, free-moving healthy breath to thrive.

Pranayama breathing practices artfully affect the breath in a way that optimally flows throughout the human form. Thus we restore maximum vitality, or life force, throughout all portions and systems of the body.

Flow of breath intimately affects thoughts, emotions, and moods. Everything about human consciousness relies on the flow of vital life force energy, and working with the breath is a powerful way to ensure this vital life force stays fresh in us.

Pratyahara means to withdraw or pull away from the outer sense experiences. In other words, to go within.

Rather than switching off the senses, it is more a question of tuning into the inner world and subtler inner sensations. This is why we seek out a quiet, non-stimulating environment for our meditation so that it is easier to give less our attention to what may arise in our hearing, sight, and other senses.

It is not that outer world senses are bad or wrong, just that what we seek to strengthen is our inner life, our interiority. Although oneness infuses all forms, we do not find unity by pursuing something outside of us, but rather by going into ourselves and discovering the in-dwelling source nature we already all, have and merging with that.

Once we feel our unity with the source we are, it is also easier to recognize it in everyone else, too.

So we practice pulling inward so that we are looking in the right place for our own personal path to source.

Yoga offers multiple ways to practice our ability to sustain our focus on one thing without wandering off in our minds. As we develop this ability we may use visualizations, focusing on the breath, or other kinds of mindfulness practices to practice the pure ability to stay concentrated without dissipating our attention.

Dhyana is the state that can come upon us when we have been practicing our ability to go within and stay there with our attention. Dhyana is a gently pleasurable state, similar to creative absorption, a flow state similar to being “in the zone”.

Dhyana is not so much a practice that we directly “do” as much as a state we train to be able to go into. Dhyana requires some experience settling in, getting past boredom and agitation, refraining from following thoughts or focusing on outer stimuli, and learning to get absorbed into the healing, peaceful, and spacious mind in the background of our own experience.

Samadhi means bliss, or enlightenment. This is the fruit we plant by practicing the other seven limbs of yoga.

Samadhi is a kind of quiet joy that arises not from escaping the difficulties of human experience, but rather from waking up from inside them and finding one is able to be in a quite natural and organic bliss state in spite of it all.